Photo Special: Turkish Wedding Massacre

Masked men armed with assault rifles and grenades killed 44 people at a wedding party in southeast Turkey in a blood feud between families over who should marry the bride, authorities and residents said.

The bride and her groom were killed in Monday evening’s attack in Bilge, a village of a few hundred people in the conservative heartland of mainly Kurdish southeast region.

“Eight people have been caught and detained, and their weapons confiscated. This can be understood as a blood feud between two families,” Interior Minister Besir Atalay told a news conference.

The suspected gunmen and many of the victims bore the same family name, Atalay said.

The Celebi family had been at odds with each other over land, membership of state-sponsored village guards, and more recently over the bride, local residents said.

The attack was sparked by revenge from one part of the Celebi family, unhappy a son had been passed over for a groom from another family in Diyarbakir.

Security forces backed by armoured vehicles set up checkpoints on roads leading to Bilge, the village where the killings took place.

Among the dead were six children, 17 women and 21 men. Yesterday morning, four large earth-movers dug graves for victims in the village cemetery.

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